The question is “Why the customer wants it in the first place.”
It’s a logical next step after greeting the customer to ask
what the customer is looking for, it enables you to show to the customer what’s
in your merchandise that matches her requirements.
However is it not a desired scenario wherein you as a sales
person know why the customer wants it in the first place? Would this additional
information not empower you to directly address the concerns of the customer,
show them the exact right thing and close the sale in a much shorter time and
in a more efficient way as you can easily suggested a few add-ons.
Try to imagine the following two scenarios:
First Scenario - the customer walks in, greetings
etc. and express that she wants to buy a lens for the camera, you show her many
options such as wide lens zoom lens prime lens etc… after around 20 mins the customer
is totally confused but you are lucky she really needs to buy so she just
randomly chooses a cheaper standard lens and you have a sale.
Second Scenario – The customer walks in, greeting
etc. and expresses that she wants to buy a lens for the camera, you reply to
her asking a question: What kind or lens are you looking for as in what do you
expect out of this lens, she replies that she needs it for usual photos such as
selfie, portrait, landscape etc. basically the usual stuff. So probe further by
asking do you have any occasion for which you need this, she replies yes my
husband and I are going for a vacation to Paris. You reply back “wow so off to
Paris it’s a lovely place, come let me show the perfect lens for you will need
for this trip and you so her the lens that’s can serve her well and at the same
time you recommend to her an add-on of a tripod and guess what she buys a high quality
lens and the tripod. Bottom line since the sales person knew why the customer
needed the lens, she was able to show her the right product and also sell an
add-on in much lesser time and less effort.
Is it not an obvious to be related to the second scenario,
wherein you so smart effort and make quick and bigger sales and that go through
a lot of effort and have smaller chances of even selling or even completing the
demonstration of the product without zoning out the customer.
The important point to note here is that once you apply the
second scenario, you build trust in the customer the trust in build because you
proved to be the expert that they were looking for, you recommended the right
product which served them well, you cared for the customer’s requirement rather
than just trying to transact. And it is due to this trust that the customer
will prefer to come back to you again and again to shop for whatever she needs.
It is because of this trust, she will refer you to her peers.
Remember customer predominantly buys from a place for 2 main
reasons:
- TRUST
- Value
The customer must trust you and the store and must see value
in your merchandise. It is your job as a sales person to build that trust and
also it’s you job to make the customer see the value in what you sell.
In my next post, I will write much in detail about demonstration/presentation
and will also cover trial close.
I hope you gained value out of the above and will appreciate
if you leave your comment and share this post.
Until then happy selling.
Photo credit Vincent / Flickr
